Tea Party Knockoffs: Watered Down, Bitter
Update: Zombie shows just how easy creating an Astroturfed knockoff can be: "Join the Cocoa Party!"
The tea party movement started just over a year ago — disorganized, homegrown protests spurred on by out-of-control federal spending and a common feeling that elected officials in Washington were more interested in gaining power than in acting on their constituents’ best interests.
The first scattering of small protests grew into a national movement that had an impact on special elections in New York and Massachusetts. Conservative Doug Hoffman unseated Republican Dede Scozzafava with tea party support, before losing the NY-23 congressional seat to Democrat Bill Owens 48% to 46%. Scott Brown, the new Republican senator from Massachusetts, also gained significant support from grassroots tea party groups, including ad buys in the closing weeks of the campaign.
Suddenly, the same Democratic politicians and pundits who dismissively referred to those involved in the populist revolt with a sexual pejorative found that it was a force to be reckoned with — and, if possible, to be undermined and marginalized.
There is perhaps no clearer example of an attempt to co-opt and undermine the tea party movement than the false flag operation that appears to be taking place in Nevada for the benefit of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Unpopular nationally for being thin-skinned and surly, Reid is foundering in his home state of Nevada, where he faces reelection in November. Reid has consistently trailed Republican challengers in his reelection bid; he trails all four in recent polls. Without a major shift, Reid’s political career would seem to be on the cusp of drawing to an ignoble end.
And then in walked Scott Ashjian.
Scott who?
You can be forgiven if you don’t know who Scott Ashjian is, or where he came from, or if he’s even a serious candidate. Even local journalists haven’t had much luck figuring that out. All we know for certain is that Ashjian seems poised to jump into the 2010 Nevada Senate race as a third-party candidate representing the newly formed Tea Party of Nevada.
The group, established merely weeks ago, is attempting to trade on the name of the grassroots tea party movement. Though while tea party protests arose organically and simultaneously over the past year, the founding officers of the Tea Party of Nevada don’t seem to have been active in any local or regional tea party events. In fact, they don’t have any ties to the movement at all. If anything, they seem to be an odd mix of cranks and conspiracy theorists, fronted by a registered Democrat who once represented a reattached John Wayne Bobbit. And the perspective candidate Ashjian may as well be Nessie for his reclusiveness and unwillingness to give interviews or make public appearances.
The Tea Party of Nevada doesn’t seem to be a serious attempt at a third party, but instead seems intent on siphoning off enough support from Republican candidates leading in the polls to put Reid back in contention. Whether or not the Democrat-led Tea Party of Nevada is successful will likely depend on how well Republicans and real tea party activists do in exposing the group attempting to co-opt the votes of their more casual supporters.
Not content to wage false flag operations to save their Senate majority leader, some desperate Democrats seem to have decided that mimicking the tea party movement may blunt its effect on the 2010 elections. Annabel Park seems to have started the so-called “Coffee Party” movement, a group of disaffected liberals that want to “end obstructionism” in Congress and find a way for the people to work with their elected officials. Following a refrain that has become common among left-wing bloggers and the more radical liberals of the Democratic Party in recent weeks, Park and her allies claim that Congress is “broken” because legislative rules do not allow the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate to ram through favored bills, such as ObamaCare, cap and trade, and similar destructive legislation.
You can read all about Ms. Park and her movement at http://coffeepartyusa.com/.
Is the Coffee Movement a real grassroots effort, or simply another attempt by Democratic politicians to drum up the semblance of support for a sputtering agenda that the majority of Americans are against? Frankly it is difficult to tell, but it is perhaps not surprising to find out that the grassroots effort involving Parks also involves her boyfriend Eric Byler. Byler filmed Parks for the Coffee Party’s How We Began video and registered the Coffee Party website.
But he didn’t register it just as an individual.
Byler registered “Real Virginians for Webb” as the registrant organization. Real Virginians for Webb is the organization Byler founded to help elect Jim Webb as senator of Virginia. Like the Coffee Party movement, RVFW also claimed to be a real grassroots organization, as did their now defunct follow-up, Real Americans for Democracy.
The Coffee Party movement seems to be merely the latest entrant into Byler’s parade of “authentic angst.” How many “grassroots” organizations can get started by the same people servicing the same agenda before they start looking like the public-facing end of an organized astroturfing (fake grassroots) campaign?
But despite these desperate and perhaps too-late attempts to blunt the momentum of the various formal and informal tea party groups, tea party supporters and candidates do seem to be making a run on establishment politics.
You don’t have to look very far to see the impact of tea party politics, either in the aforementioned runs of Hoffman and Brown, or in the exploding popularity in Texas of Debra Medina, a small-town girl from Lytle, Texas, with a Palinesque profile and revolutionary message. She is running a tea party candidacy to unseat incumbent Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson for the Republican nomination for the governorship of Texas. Professional pollsters will tell you that odds are strongly against Medina pulling an upset victory in the primaries, and Guardian reporter Paul Harris may have very well hit the mark when he found a political science professor who likened the populism of the tea party movement to the sort of outrage that fueled Ross Perot’s presidential runs in 1992 and 1996. Perhaps future historians will look back on the tea party movement one day as a flash of outrage that only amounted to a minor “politics as usual.”
At the moment, however, it sure seems like a lot of folks want to be the next Ross Perot.
You were expecting anything different? Democrats always steal good ideas.
The democrat’s tea party movement ?
“No taxation without double taxation !”
Democrat Astroturf “Coffee” exposed:
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2010/03/coffee-party-parasite.html
Debra Medina might be a 9/11 truther. I hope the people of Texas take a long hard look at her before they back her. If you google ” Debra Medina truther” you’ll see Glen Beck asked her about on his radio show and she didn’t come across well.
“More taxes for thee, more freebies for me!”
Tea Party Partiots on Facebook 97000 fans – over 1 year old
Coffee Party on Facebook 52000 fans — 5 weeks old
Sorry guys — it’s you that are the fringe. Bye Bye now!
Kind of like attacking a cloud with a baseball bat. There are a lot of voters who recognize that the two parties are more alike than different, and these voters will influence elections. This or that ‘organization’ can be labelled or attacked, but the rubber will meet the road in the voting booths.
6. Ron
Sorry guys — it’s you that are the fringe.
Poor symbolism:
coffee – scalding hot water poured through roasted seeds to extract flavors that rapidly turn bitter as the brew cools. It is usually kept on heat to keep it hot. Best if brewed within 24 -72 hours of roasting and within 1 hour from grinding. Often used as a flavoring for milk drinks such as lattes and frapacinos
tea – dried leaves steeped in water below the boil. Steeping time is dependent on the many varieties and repeated steeping provides pleasant variations of the resulting tea until all volatiles are extracted. Kept warm by enclosing in a cozy but also purposely brewed to be enjoyed ice cold. The most consumed beverage in the world (other than water).
Tea historically associated with oppressive taxation and revolt against them.
Coffee historically associated with shortages, rationing and the necessity of poor individuals to seek out chicory and other substitutes to combat government restrictions.
well, I see it as…the right is too busy working to “constatnly” stay on the internet..
The left…well, I suppose they could be busy collecting welfare and freebies..but, they seem to manage.
This won’t work. The assumption here is that tea partiers will see Ashjian’s party affiliation on the ballot and go for him without any further thought. Unfortunately for Reid the tea party is made up of people disgusted with the current political class, in other words people who actually pay attention to what’s going on.
Easy enough to join Facebook. I might believe in “Coffee Party” dominance when instead of surfing the net at Starbucks, thousands of you show up in one place, at one time, at your own expense, with your handmade (non-union) signs. Facebook is not the sole arbiter of political valence, thank God.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Thank you, Ron!
Ron, you missed some key points. Assuming your numbers are correct, and ignoring the fact that facebook != real world (I’ve been to 3 tea parties in DC, and am not on facebook at all, for instance):
Coffee Party: 52000 people who were going to vote Democrat anyway, thus changing nothing
Tea Party: 97000 swing voters
As usual, getting the anger directed to a third party will only benefit the democrat thugs. Unless and until the same folks supporting the Tea Party movement along with independents just totally ticked off follow the example of the radical left and take over the Republican party the way the Soros funded socialists have the democrat party, there won’t be any changes.
As for how many are registered for the Coffee Parfait, two thirds of them are more than likely multiple registrations just so that posts citing their huge support can be made. Any and all democrat leftie propaganda is always based on fraud. Their savoir who is now in office? A Fraud. Nancy and Harry? Frauds. Baaknee Fwank? A Fraud. Chris Dodd? A Fraud. ACORN? A fraud generator. It’s always the same with them so just enjoy a laugh at their ‘fans’ the same way you enjoy a laugh at their lies about AGW.
Regards
Uh oh, it seems that the productive population without gobs of freetime has lost Facebook to the liberals. Egads! Next thing you’ll tell me that there won’t be anymore anti-gov’t spending rants at the Oscars!
I see Ron — Seattle failed basic math, being unable to tell that 97,000 > 52,000.
Nor does he seem to grasp that there are more than 500 Tea Party affiliated groups on Facebook, ranging in size from dozens to tens of thousands each.
But whatever helps you hold on to your hope and change, sport.
When you run a false flag op, you have to worry about the true operatives showing up. For instance in Nevada if the Tea Party folks ran their own candidate against Reid’s stalking horse, they could knock him out, and then have the winner withdraw.
As to the “Coffee Party?” we just need all the folks who are Tea Party to show up at their parties and overwhelm them. The Tea Party folks should be welcomed, according to the NYT article because they supposedly only differ in tactics. Fifty cents says that they would be as welcome as a skunk at a garden party. I plan to go, mostly because I have been thrown out of higher class organizations than this Coffee Party.
Need to add to my resume.
I think this is a lot of worry about nothing. I live in the heart of Nevada Tea Party country in Northern Nevada. Considering the long-standing animosity here towards Reid it is unimaginable to me that anyone is going to subvert the best chance in decades to be rid of him by voting for such an obvious and well publicized sham as Ashjian. We may be a bunch of cowboy hicks but we are bright enough to not shoot ourselves in the foot.
People are stupid. Anybody who thinks that the Tea Party Movement is confined to just people who have registered somewhere or gone to a rally are sorely mistaken.
Virtually everyone I know shares the values of the Tea Party: smaller government, personal freedom, economic responsibility. And I knew very few who would call themselves “Tea Partiers”.
The Democrats have a tin ear to what is happening. This is America’s Second Revolution.
You’re much too nice with these wannabes.
When what they really want to serve you is an overpriced, hot, steaming cup of-
CIVET SH*T and MONKEY SPIT or THE PREDIGESTED POLITICS OF THE “COFFEE PARTY”
http://naturalfake.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/civet-st-and-monkey-spit-or-the-predigested-politics-of-the-coffee-party/
Don’t drink the Weasel Coffee!
Conor @ 18:
You are right on! Also, the 2010 grass roots Tea Party movement has all to do with wholesale rejection of our present Bolshevik president/congress and nothing to do with the 1990′s and a narcissist, schizophrenic, billionaire named Perot.
Related YouTube parody: Coffee Party Meets Kool Aid Man: http://www.youtube.com/user/Optoons#p/u/1/DBOJrlKyfIE
Well, Ron, people can call each other “fringe” and all sorts of other names, but what counts is who wins which elections. See you at the polls!
The original Boston Tea Party was conducted by colonists dressed up as Indians.
Suppose they’d tangled with real Indians holding ‘Long Live King George’ signs? (Which would have been in the Indians’ interest since the British used them to keep the colonists in their place.) What would the newspapers have said?
Should be an interesting election…
*********
Seriously, I suspect Boyd #19 is correct that this ploy won’t fool enough people to affect the Nevada result.
What can we DO about this false flag crap?
Someone should raise money for an ad campaign that specifically says this is NOT a ‘tea party’ operation, that a vote for this guy is a vote for Reid.
The tea parties that are well organized really need to let their own people know that this is a stunt to get Reid re-elected.
I guess this kind of story is part of that.
I was doing some googling around, after the San Antonio Tea Party’s 1-year anniversary rally on Feb 21. We had a counter-protest, about thirty or forty of them – more about this in the entry I posted a couple of days later
http://www.ncobrief.com/index.php/archives/down-by-the-station/ I putzed around, searching for video and news coverage of our event – as well as theirs and found their heir website, and facebook pages, and thought there was the faint smell of astroturf about them. Excellent to have my instincts confirmed!
Count on the Democrats trying to organize some sort of third party movement in 2012 to divide the opposition of Obama. It will be the only way they will be able to win. The only real question is, how many people will they be able to dupe?
That didn’t take long.
Fauxtography, fauxtea.
Oooh , oooh, let me guess….they are….Chock full O’ Nuts. LOL
Ron is going to be very, very surprised when his coffee clatch doesn’t even show at the polls in November. It’s going to be a tsunami, Ron..
Quick note on the phoney Tea Party in Nevada… no one is falling for these bullsh*ters. Just isn’t working.
I know Debra Medina personally, and she is not a truther, she is not a birther, but she IS a tenther!
“6. Ron — Seattle:
Tea Party Partiots on Facebook 97000 fans –
Coffee Party on Facebook 52000 fans — ”
Heh.. 97,000 well armed American patriots.
52,000 Latte sipping leftwing punks.
YOU LOSE.
Kopi Luwak — The perfect match.
“Kopi” — Pidgin for “coffee”. Paradoxurus hermaphroditus == Luwak, the civet cats whose sh*t from which Kopi Luwak is made.
From the Coffee Party USA: About Us:
Who talks like that? I mean other than lobbyists, pundits and strategists?
The Coffee Party is funded by MSNBC, one of whose biggest mouths is Dylan Ratigan leftnut puke punk and neocom who cuts off
the microphone of anyone who disagrees with Ratigan’s disagreeable personality and reprehensible politics. When Ratigan isn’t cursing someone out for exercising their constitutional right of free speech, he’s sucking up to every left wing extremist he can find. At the same time, if I had a Ratigan curl-over haircut, I’d probably be in a foul mood, too; ready to make a snide assumption about Tea Partiers on his MSNBC show at the drop of a Saul Alinsky pamphlet.
Of course, Ratigan’s assumptions about Tea Partiers tend to be bald faced lies. For instance, recently on his minus rated show, he ranted and smeared his guest best he could that Tea Partiers “accept” Racists, Nazis, NAMBLA supporters and domestic terrorists on a moment’s notice.
Yet, while Tea Partiers condemn them, Ratigan’s lovely Obama administration apparently welcomes them with open arms. Not just on the street in a protest march where one can’t control who comes and goes, but in the White House. Whom you ask? Try Van Jones, the self proclaimed Communist, Obama’s former Green Czar. How about Eric Holder who calls all white males cowards when it comes to race (even American soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting side by side with African American GI’s.) Try Kevin Jennings, NAMBLA buddy, Obama’s Safe School Czar. Then there’s Bill Ayers, self proclaimed domestic terrorist and frequent dinner companion of Barack Obama. And what about Robert Byrd? If a former member of the KKK wasn’t also at least a Nazi sympathizer, I’d be very surprised. And if you don’t consider Byrd to be a member of the Obama administration, well, he’s visited Obama in the White House more times than Obama would care to remember. And isn’t one known by the company one keeps.
Dylan Ratigan lives in a glass house where his claim to fame is the ability to turn off somebody’s microphone without mussing up the few hairs left on your head. Without delay, this left wing loon should forthwith seek immediate admittance to the Witless Protection Program located in his local area. For his information, it’s listed in the Yellow Pages under “Witless.” After being fitted with a wig to hide his identity and bald head, he’ll fit in perfectly.
“Unpopular nationally for being thin-skinned and surly”
What’s wrong with being surly?
After this last year, I can’t believe that there are more than a handful of die hard lefties that could actually cast a vote for that little imp.
2. Sherab Zangpo:
The democrat’s tea party movement ?
“No taxation without double taxation !”
Mar 2, 2010 – 9:34 am
What you should have said:
Democrats mantra: “Double Taxation, Without Representation!”
6. Ron — Seattle:
Seattle Coffee Party protest – 20 people.
Seattle Tea Party Protest 2009 – 125 people. Without first getting fawning coverage from the NYT and WaPo. You forgot to mention that before those two articles, there was maybe a couple thousand on facebook. Nice, try. Please come again.
Great page. Waiting for you to continue the topic.
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